After three months living in Alicante and a couple of very quick weekend trips, we finally had the opportunity to take a longer trip: We spent the week in Amsterdam! The main purpose of the trip was to see the famous Amsterdam tulip fields (more on that later), but I was excited to come back to the Netherlands for the third time, and Matt got to check another country off the list. Luckily, it was very easy to fly from Alicante to Amsterdam with Transavia Airlines.
I had never heard of Transavia before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it caught my eye for a couple of reasons: first, we didn’t have to pay extra to bring a carry-on bag; second, it wasn’t RyanAir.
Keep reading to learn more about flying with Transavia and my review of the experience.
Booking Your Transavia Tickets
Transavia Airlines is a Dutch company headquartered at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport. (Fun fact, Schiphol is the third-busiest airport in Europe after London-Heathrow and Paris-CDG). You can book a Transavia flight on most travel booking sites, as well as on the Transavia website.
One advantage of choosing Transavia Airlines was that, with the standard fare, we were able to have our carry-on bags included. That’s pretty rare in Europe these days, so we were really happy with our booking. But just a few weeks later, we got an email from Transavia:
“We are updating our cabin luggage policy from the 3rd of April 2024. One of the most important changes is that from that date everyone will have to pay extra to take a cabin bag on board. Since you booked your flight with the old regulations, nothing changes for you essentially. This means that you can bring a piece of hand luggage and a cabin bag for free.”
While we were still able to travel with our carry-on bags for free during this trip, this is no longer the case. Looking at their booking options now, you have three tickets types to choose from: Basic, Plus, and Max.
With Basic, all you get is a randomized seat on the plane and your under-seat personal item. Plus gallows you to choose your seat and check a 20kg bag as well as have your personal item on the plane. And Max is the only way you get to bring a carry-on bag — it also comes with a 30kg checked bag.
I believe that you can add a carry-on bag to your ticket later, which also comes with “Priority Boarding,” though in practice I saw no such thing as Priority Boarding. The cost should be about €10 to €27 each way. But if you’re looking for the cheapest flight, you’ll need to go with Basic and figure out how to pack your personal item as best as you can.
Logistics
We were able to check-in online about 36 hours in advance. We also got to select our seats (there were some free ones, some paid) when we checked in. After the process was complete, Transavia displayed a QR code we could scan to download our tickets to our passbooks on our phone.
When it was time to board, there really only seemed to be two boarding groups: Premium (or something equivalent) and then everyone else. When we got to the end of the jet bridge, there was a sign pointing for those seated in rows 1-18 to go left, and those in rows 19-36 to go right. Those in the front of the plane continued down the jet bridge to board through the forward door, while those of us in the back ended up heading down a flight of stairs, out onto the tarmac, where we then took airstairs up through the plane’s back door.
I had been a little bit worried about overhead bin space, but luckily we didn’t have a problem finding space for our bags. The only thing that was hard to find space for was our knees — the Transavia seats had the least amount of legroom I’ve seen on a flight in quite a while.
Security
Since we were flying directly between two EU countries, everything was very easy and hassle-free.
One super cool thing to note, though, at Amsterdam’s airport: You don’t have to take any liquids or electronics out of your bag when you go through security! Also, you don’t even have to empty out your water bottles. This is amazing and every airport should be like this!
Experience
Despite the small seats, Transavia was a decent airline. I liked that, unlike RyanAir, the whole thing didn’t feel like a sales pitch under the guise of an airline flight.
The only thing that I did not like was the fact that both of our flights ended up being delayed. I swear that the second we got through security in Alicante, we started getting the delayed flight notifications. The first flight was delayed an hour, which really sucked considering our original landing time in Amsterdam was supposed to be 12:20 a.m. — so we didn’t end up getting out of the Amsterdam airport until 1:30 a.m. thanks to the delay.
On the way home, our flight was also delayed about an hour, though it was initially stated to only be 20 minutes. Luckily our flight wasn’t as late at night, so it didn’t impact us as much, but I was still annoyed.
I really, really hate it when flights are delayed, so I am side-eyeing Transavia for the fact that it happened two out of two times on this trip. But I won’t hold it against them unless it happens again…
Value
I was really happy with the price of our flights on Transavia, especially considering that we got carry-on bags for free. We ended up paying €300 total for the two of us, round-trip, from Alicante to Amsterdam. With it starting to be peak travel season, especially with the April tulip frenzy in the Netherlands, I really can’t complain about what we spent on our flights.
While I feel that Transavia was a great value for this particular trip, it’s hard to say whether the same would be true in the future — and this is specifically because the free carry-on option no longer exists. Next time I’m traveling to the Netherlands, I will certainly be comparing Transavia alongside all the other budget carriers that charge for carry-on bags.
Anyway, I had a decent experience with Transavia (except for the delays), and we will see whether my future holds more Transavia flights.
Have you ever flown with them, or are you thinking about it? Let me know in the comments.
-Cathy
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